SANTA ANA – The passer-by wasn't sure when he called 911 more than 17 years ago if the man he saw lying on an isolated field in Irvine was asleep or dead.

It didn't take long on April 16, 1995, for Irvine police to determine that it was violence and not sleepiness: Gonzalo Dominguez Ramirez, 24, of Riverside had been beaten and stabbed multiple times and his body dumped near where Sand Canyon Road dead-ends at the San Diego Freeway.

The last time anyone saw Ramirez alive was hours earlier on a Santa Ana street when a fender-bender developed into a fight. A friend who was riding with Ramirez in his car dashed off to get help, according to news accounts. When he returned, Ramirez was gone, and so were the other combatants. What was left was Ramirez's shoe and droplets of blood in the street.

Cold-case detectives from the Santa Ana Police Department say that they have found some answers about how he got to the Irvine field, who killed him and why.

Detectives in October and early December arrested two women and a man and charged them with murdering Ramirez in retaliation after a Pomona College student said he sexually assaulted her in her dorm room after they met at a Santa Ana dance club.

Instead of going to police, Norma Patricia Esparza, 38, told her boyfriend, Gianni Anthony Van, about two weeks later, according to court documents, and Van allegedly organized the retaliation.

Documents filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court say that Van and several friends started looking for the man who sexually assaulted Esparza beginning in early April 1995, and that Esparza finally pointed him out about two weeks later at the El Cortez Club.

Van and his friends then followed Ramirez as he left the club after midnight, according to court documents, and crashed into him on purpose at Lyon Street and Chestnut Avenue in the early morning hours of April 16, 1995. Ramirez was then dragged into a white Chevrolet Astro van by several people and taken to Accurate Transmission in Costa Mesa while his friend ran for help, according to the documents.

The group, including Kody Tran, the owner of the transmission shop, and his wife, Diane Tran, then agreed to murder Ramirez, according to a criminal complaint. Ramirez was taken to another location and stabbed to death. Police said the autopsy showed that Ramirez suffered blows to his head with what appears to be a meat cleaver.

Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said Tuesday that detectives in 1995 questioned Esparza, Van and Kody Tran about the Ramirez slaying, but there was insufficient evidence to file charges.

But two months ago, cold-case detectives learned that Esparza, a college professor in Europe, had returned to the United States from France and was being detained in Massachusetts on an Orange County arrest warrant, triggering new investigative leads. Esparza was extradited back to Orange County and is being held on a murder charge.

Kody Tran was also a suspect in the case but killed himself July 12 of this year in his Irvine home during a standoff with police as he was being investigated in connection with the Ramirez slaying. Irvine police said he barricaded himself inside the house because of an unrelated domestic issue with his estranged wife.

Gries, accused of being one of the assailants who abducted Ramirez, according to the complaint, is listed as a fugitive.

The four co-defendants are also charged with two special-circumstances allegations – murder during a kidnapping and murder by lying-in-wait – which could lead to life terms in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Gianni Van, 43, was arrested Friday in Costa Mesa and was charged with murder and conspiracy. COURTESY SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Diane Tran, 44, was arrested Friday in Irvine and was charged with murder and conspiracy. COURTESY SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Norma Patricia Esparza, 38, was arrested in October on a murder warrant in Massachusetts. She was extradited and booked into Orange County Jail. COURTESY SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Kody Tran was also a suspect in the case, but killed himself on July 12 of this year in his Irvine home during a standoff with police as he was being investigated in connection with the Ramirez slaying, according to officials. COURTESY SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Shannon Ray Gries, 41, allegedly one of the assailants who abducted Ramirez, according to the complaint, is listed as a fugitive. COURTESY OF THE SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Gonzalo Dominguez Ramirez, 24, of Riverside, was beaten and stabbed multiple times in April 1995. His body was dumped near where Sand Canyon Road dead-ends at the San Diego Freeway. COURTESY OF THE SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT

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